She was, even when not this upset, a very difficult girl to surprise, or sneak up on. And yet here was someone who'd done both.
"Been there," she said. She didn't turn and face him yet. She was trying to figure out who he might be, why he was here, and what his interest in her was. Because River figured that the people who cared about her were few, mostly the crew of the Firefly. And none of them could pop up in a shadow like that.
Now she turned, a thick bunch of dark hair out of whack and hanging down into her face.
"How did you do that?"
River came closer to the shadow the man stood in and poked him with a finger, just to make sure he was solid and not a wave or a hologram. She knew he wasn't a ghost. Ghosts weren't real.